In recent years, it has become a commonplace to provide wheelchair users with accommodations in mass transit vehicles, such as buses, trains or airplanes. Such accommodations typically allow these persons to ride in the vehicle while remaining in the wheelchair. It is desirable, under these circumstances, to secure the occupant and the wheelchair to the vehicle for the safety of the user of the wheelchair, as well as the safety of other occupants of the vehicle.
While numerous methodologies have been developed for securing wheelchairs to the interior of vehicles, many of the methods and devices developed for such securement create inconveniences to both the wheelchair passenger and the operator of the vehicle. Because the wheelchair-using passenger is frequently restricted in body movement, it is desirable to provide wheelchair securement systems which are easily reached and manipulated by the passenger. In the alternative, if such securement systems are not manipulative solely by the passenger, it is desirable to have them easily operable by the vehicle operator or an operator's assistant. It is also desirable to provide wheelchair securement systems which are easily repositioned within the vehicle to permit the space sometimes used by a wheelchair-using passenger to be readily converted for use by persons not so handicapped. For this reason, a wide variety of methodologies and devices have been developed in the form of stowable restraints for wheelchairs and wheelchair-using passengers. Preferably, such restraints should be positioned in the immediate vicinity of the area where a wheelchair will be secured. In known systems using a plurality of belts and anchors, however, (belts and anchors which are stowed remotely, for example, in a storage locker), such belts and anchors frequently become lost, damaged or soiled when not in use. Additionally, this type of restraint almost always requires installation in the vehicle and attachment to the wheelchair by someone other than the wheelchair occupant.
It is also known to provide wheelchair restraint systems which are secured to the vehicle and articulate between a stowed and an extended position. This type of technology is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,038, issued to Ditch et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,325, issued to Craft. Even these systems, however, have an important drawback in that it is difficult to provide the necessary securement and tension to four discrete points on the wheelchair, in the fashion in which the anchoring apparatus for the wheelchair is usually attached to the vehicle, without the assistance of a person other than the wheelchair occupant. Existing systems are also awkward to use and store.
There is a need, therefore, for a wheelchair tie-down system which is easily attached to the wheelchair by the vehicle operator or the wheelchair occupant alone, which is similarly easy to tension, and which is readily stowable within the vehicle, eliminating the presence of any obstacles to other passengers when the system is not in use.